Diversity Changes in a Plant and Carabid Community During Early Succession in an Embanked Salt-Marsh Area

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Diversity changes in a plant and carabid community are investigated in a former intertidal saltmarsh area after this became embanked. High levels of plant and carabid diversity were found in the first three years of succession. After this initial peak, diversity gradually decreased. It is suggested that the rate of successional change is partly responsible for the diversity peak early in successional of both the plant and carabid community. For the carabid community microclimatic variability and the lack of community regulating processes, such as interspecific competition and predation, might also contribute to early diversity peaks in succession. A slight increase of diversity after eight years presumably resulted from increased spatial heterogeneity. [KEYWORDS: Carabid communities; plant communities; diversity; temporal heterogeneity; spatial heterogeneity; environmental stability Species composition; fauna coleoptera; recolonization;stability; forests; polder; mines]